Grandparents killed in wrong-way crash on Hwy. 401 identified
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
Regulators are looking into the deal that would bring Donald Trump's new social media company to the stock market, one that has attracted both legions of fans of the former president and people looking to make a quick profit.
The company partnering with Trump Media & Technology Group acknowledged the inquiries in a filing it made with regulators on Monday. It also gave some financial forecasts for the company, which wants to rival Twitter and other platforms that banned Trump after the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, along with Netflix and other streaming video services. It said over the weekend that it's lined up US$1 billion in investments from a group of unnamed institutional investors.
Separately, Trump Media announced that Rep. Devin Nunes, a Republican from California, will leave Congress to become the company's chief executiv e in January. Nunes, the former chair of the House Intelligence Committee, was an ardent backer of Trump's during probes into Russian interference in the 2016 election and the president's 2019 impeachment by the Democratic-led House.
The regulatory scrutiny is focused on the October announcement by Trump's media venture that it would merge with Digital World Acquisition Corp. That company had launched on the U.S. stock market three weeks earlier with the sole purpose of finding a privately held company to buy. It's often referred to by its trading symbol of "DWAC."
DWAC said Monday that it is cooperating with "the preliminary, fact-finding inquiries" by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
Trump dimissed the request for documents as a political attack on him.
"You know, this is just a continuation of witch hunts," he said on the conservative channel Newsmax Monday night. "Anything you do they want to look at it."
The SEC early last month requested documents related to meetings of DWAC's board and communications between DWAC and Trump's media venture, among other things. According to DWAC, the SEC's request said the commission's "investigation does not mean that the SEC has concluded that anyone violated the law or that the SEC has a negative opinion of DWAC or any person, event, or security."
The SEC could be looking at whether DWAC and Trump's company had any conversations about a deal before DWAC's own initial public offering of stock, said Jay Ritter, a professor at the University of Florida who is an expert on IPOs.
Under rules for these blank-check companies, known as special-purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, they're not supposed to line up acquisition targets before selling their own shares. Senator Elizabeth Warren on Nov. 17 wrote a letter to the SEC's chair, Gary Gensler, asking if the agency is exploring whether DWAC had violated the law by holding such discussions and misleading potential investors by failing to inform them before its IPO.
Asked how worried he would be about the SEC's investigation if he were on the receiving end, Ritter said, "It depends on what I knew. This could be innocuous or pro-forma stuff, or it could be really serious."
Just what the regulators are probing is not clear. What's more, the regulatory rules on SPAC discussions with targets are gray, prohibiting only "substantive" talks with possible acquisition targets.
Still, the Trump deal stood out as unusual in many ways even before an Oct. 29 report from the New York Times said that DWAC CEO Patrick Orlando had met with Trump and his representatives before taking DWAC public. Blank-check companies typically buy businesses with employees, customers and a track record, which is not the case with the Trump deal. Several SPAC experts also said the three weeks it took for DWAC to find and strike a deal with TMTG was unusually fast.
DWAC and TMTG did not respond to requests for comment on Monday.
An SEC spokesperson declined to comment beyond saying, "The SEC does not comment on the existence or nonexistence of a possible investigation."
Separately, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, asked in late October and early November for a review of trading in DWAC's stock before the Oct. 20 merger deal was announced. That could be an indication of a search for insider trading, Ritter said, though it's a notoriously difficult thing to prove.
The merger announcement sent DWAC's stock surging from $9.96 to $94.20 in just two days as Trump supporters and investors looking to make a fast buck piled in. The shares have since pulled back to roughly $44. On Monday, the shares closed down 2.6% at $43.81.
Such a lofty price indicates high expectations for Trump's media venture among at least some investors. In its filing with regulators, DWAC also gave some financial forecasts for the company, which has yet to launch but wants to build a "non-cancellable" global community.
The presentation included forecasts that the company's TRUTH Social service may have 81 million users by 2026, or nearly 7 million more people than voted for Trump in the last U.S. presidential election.
SPACs generally are known for giving very optimistic forecasts about their future growth in presentations to investors.
In five years, TMTG is forecast to generate nearly $3.7 billion in revenue, according to the filing. That is more than the annual revenue of retailer Restoration Hardware, RV maker Winnebago Industries and entertainment giant iHeart Media, which owns more than 800 radio stations.
For its TMTG+ video service that will stream "non-woke" entertainment and news, it says the monthly fee per user could be $9 in 2026. Netflix, in comparison, got $14.49 in average revenue from its U.S. and Canadian members during the first nine months of this year.
In the statement announcing his appointment as CEO, Nunes said, "The time has come to reopen the Internet and allow for the free flow of ideas and expression without censorship."
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
Three people have been arrested and charged in the killing of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar – as authorities continue investigating potential connections to the Indian government.
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
TD Bank Group could be hit with more severe penalties than previously expected, says a banking analyst after a report that the investigation it faces in the U.S. is tied to laundering illicit fentanyl profits.
A Quebec man who pleaded guilty to threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
RCMP say human remains found in a rural area in central Saskatchewan may have been there for a decade or more.
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
As Wegovy becomes available to Canadians starting Monday, a medical expert is cautioning patients wanting to use the drug to lose weight that no medication is a ''magic bullet,' and the new medication is meant particularly for people who meet certain criteria related to obesity and weight.
Drew Carey took over as host of 'The Price Is Right' and hopes he’s there for life. 'I'm not going anywhere,' he told 'Entertainment Tonight' of the job he took over from longtime host Bob Barker in 2007.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.